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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Girl, Unframed is a dark thriller displaying the challenges of a young girl growing into her body and being targeted. Sydney lives two lives that collide when she spends the summer with her mom and her mom’s new boyfriend. Sydney turned sixteen and sensed something was going to change. Readers experience the conflicting emotions Sydney feels about men’s comments about her body and the accusations her mom makes. They experience the humiliation of being publicly objectified, judged by women who do the same, and frustrated with her inability to get the support she needs. Jake is used to representing greed and possessive behaviors metaphorically and realistically. Sydney’s romantic relationship with Nicco explores her need for answers and the risk of following feelings without adults to support those decisions.
The story moves at a moderate pace, easing readers into Sydney’s life. It transitions between chapters with reports from police records and Sydney’s interrogation. Readers are pulled into the unknown crime and question Sydney’s involvement. The interaction between Sydney and the people in her life is revealing the darker subtext to the story and the challenges women face. The setting appropriately contrasts Sydney’s feeling of being alone in a big city. I would recommend this story to readers interested in feminist narratives and realistic thrillers not meant to entertain but challenge.
The story moves at a moderate pace, easing readers into Sydney’s life. It transitions between chapters with reports from police records and Sydney’s interrogation. Readers are pulled into the unknown crime and question Sydney’s involvement. The interaction between Sydney and the people in her life is revealing the darker subtext to the story and the challenges women face. The setting appropriately contrasts Sydney’s feeling of being alone in a big city. I would recommend this story to readers interested in feminist narratives and realistic thrillers not meant to entertain but challenge.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really wanted to love this book. I think it is trying to get across such an important message, it's just not that well executed.
After reading other reviews, I have to agree that nothing actually happens. You are waiting until the end of the story for this big event and then it's so underwhelming. There is no twist or mystery and the build up to it just doesn't make that much sense, it's kind of all over the place.
The author does handle certain issues well though and I didn't struggle to keep reading as I wanted to find out what happened.
This was an average read. I do think it discussed important issues but just wasn't a gripping story or thriller like I thought it would be.
After reading other reviews, I have to agree that nothing actually happens. You are waiting until the end of the story for this big event and then it's so underwhelming. There is no twist or mystery and the build up to it just doesn't make that much sense, it's kind of all over the place.
The author does handle certain issues well though and I didn't struggle to keep reading as I wanted to find out what happened.
This was an average read. I do think it discussed important issues but just wasn't a gripping story or thriller like I thought it would be.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic relationship
Minor: Murder
It’s a YA version of Big Little Lies, both in narrative format and subject matter. I liked it. More typos than usual for Caletti’s books, and fewer callbacks to her other books in the same world (since this one takes place in San Francisco), but overall very good. She says important things and I wish she had been this vocal about feminist issues in her earlier books, which I read when I was actually a young adult. Sometimes these statements felt preachy or repetitive, but let’s be honest: how women and girls are actually treated in society feels repetitive, too.
Fuck, y'all. This one really hurt. It is a book about the millions of ways that men treat women of all ages like objects. It is also a book about a girl who's mother prioritizes her own beauty and the opinion of men over her own daughter and.. this book hit me hard. It hit me SO personally in ways that a book never has before and I am going to be thinking about this one for a LONG time.
TW: sexual harassment, domestic abuse, emotional manipulation
TW: sexual harassment, domestic abuse, emotional manipulation
Sydney is growing up and that means her body is changing too. She has started noticing that boys and men both are giving her attention and she starts to wonder where the line between flattery and obsession is. Sydney is supposed to spend the summer with her mother, but since her mom is the famous Lila Shore, Sydney knows that she will not be on the top of her mother’s plans. Will Sydney be able to decipher when attention is good and when it is bad? Will Sydney be able to keep herself safe when so many young ladies before her could not?
Girl, Unframed is a standalone realistic fiction story that covers many truths about growing up in today’s society. The actions that take place in this book may have been extremes from the entertainment industry, but that does not mean they only happen there. Caletti gives hints about what may or may not be coming with titles of what seems to be evidence of proof … of what; you must read further into the book to find out. Although this book is listed as a thriller, it is the story BEFORE the action with the mystery being dangled in front of the reader during the majority of the book. A good book, but requires a little bit of perseverance.
Girl, Unframed is a standalone realistic fiction story that covers many truths about growing up in today’s society. The actions that take place in this book may have been extremes from the entertainment industry, but that does not mean they only happen there. Caletti gives hints about what may or may not be coming with titles of what seems to be evidence of proof … of what; you must read further into the book to find out. Although this book is listed as a thriller, it is the story BEFORE the action with the mystery being dangled in front of the reader during the majority of the book. A good book, but requires a little bit of perseverance.
I liked it but I couldn't help feeling a bit over "the message" by the end. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood. This book does a great job at showcasing the issues and disparities surrounding what's expected/not expected of girls/women vs boys/men. It has a lot to say about being objectified all set against a backdrop of a thriller-light plot. But I got a little bored and my enjoyment was a bit up and down. Full review to come.
Sydney returns home from school to spend the summer with her mom Lila. She doesn’t have a great feeling about the summer as she has a strained relationship with her mom because her mom has a habit of putting the sleezy men in her life before her. Sydney soon learns that Lila has started dating Jake, a shady art dealer. Sydney is also trying to navigate her new reality of receiving unwanted attention from men. This book is scarily realistic about how women deal with unwanted attention or harassment from men. I’m not sure it’s a thriller it’s definitely more of a YA contemporary but it does keep you waiting to see what is going to happen.